(RSF/IFEX) – In a 16 November 1999 letter to the Sri Lankan president and security minister, Chandrika Kumaratunga, RSF expressed its indignation about the murder of Atputharajah Nadarajah, chief editor of the Tamil-language weekly “Thinamurasu.” RSF asked that “a serious and thorough investigation” be conducted to find out the motives of, and the people responsible […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a 16 November 1999 letter to the Sri Lankan president and
security minister, Chandrika Kumaratunga, RSF expressed its indignation
about the murder of Atputharajah Nadarajah, chief editor of the
Tamil-language weekly “Thinamurasu.” RSF asked that “a serious and thorough
investigation” be conducted to find out the motives of, and the people
responsible for this murder. RSF also asked to be kept informed of the
findings of the investigation.
An unidentified gunman killed Nadarajah and his driver on the morning of 9
November. The journalist, 38, was also a member of parliament for the Jaffa
district for the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP), which belongs to
the ruling People’s Alliance coalition. Nadarajah avoided contact with the
public and few people even knew what he looked like. Over the past year his
weekly had changed, veering towards Tamil nationalism and supporting the
Tamil Tigers.
This murder occurred as the government is drawing up censorship regulations
on media coverage of the civil war between the army and the LTTE (the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam). On 6 November, the information department
issued an immediate ban on “the publication, broadcast or transmission of
sensitive military information. (See IFEX slert of 10 November 1999).
